The first two months of 2022 have served us, within the women’s circuit, to witness an absolute paradigm shift with respect to the Polish Iga Swiatek. We all had her conceptualized as a pure earthling, with certain difficulties to be dangerous on fast tracks, but in January and February she has silenced many mouths. Semis in Adelaide, semis in Australia and title in Doha. Specifically in Qatar, exhibiting tennis and above all, a dominance hierarchy on the court, similar to the one he showed at Roland Garros when he won the title. Iga is already a fast court player too, she is here to stay and in an interview for the WTA she explains everything behind this fantastic transformation, this qualitative change in the Polish woman that is opening many doors for her beyond clay.
An overwhelming Swiatek in Doha, in the manner of Roland Garros 2020
“I am very proud of what I have achieved here because my goal in this tournament in Doha was above all to play in such a way that I could always force my opponents. Put pressure on them. All this in line with the new tennis that I have been doing. I had been thinking before the final, how is it that she (Ostapenko) has changed her game in such a way that now she is winning all these tournaments and has been accumulating that winning record, the idea for me was not to let her do that, to be the first to be aggressive and send in the attacking game.
I actually keep telling myself this after every game I’ve played here. It seemed to me something basic, very important, and in the past I was not capable of this when I played against great hitters. I did it in Doha against Aryna Sabalenka and against other very solid players who play very topspin like Kasatkina or Sakkari. Very proud of all this, showing that I am very complete and that I have been doing a great job in my tennis.”
The process of transforming his tennis, from an earthling to a fast court hitter
“I have been working very hard on the concepts related to attack. I have always considered myself a very good tennis player defending and I wanted to be just as good and feel really comfortable when I had to go on attack. the top five in the world, I didn’t want to say that I wasn’t capable of beating the hardest hitters before or playing tennis to be in the top 10 or top 5. But now I really feel that I can do all that, I have more options in my tennis and I can choose when facing different types of players. It is not a question of using all the variants in the same match, but knowing that I can do different things when I go down for example, I know that it is they can fix things and play better tennis.
Stability and continuity, keys for her
“The most incredible thing for me this week has been that I was able to maintain this enormous level of tennis. I was able to make great matches, not only the one with Sabalenka or the one with Kasatkina. For me, consistency and stability is the most important thing. I have noticed many times in my career that in the first rounds of tournaments I was playing well and then suddenly my level dropped without really knowing why. Now I feel like I have more control over all that. It gives me a lot of calm.”
His coach, Tomasz Witkorowski, the great architect of the change
“I don’t think that since I’ve been with him this has been worked on, it came from before. But with my previous coach I was more stubborn. Tomasz has convinced me to change my tennis. I’m much more aggressive now and I love it. At first It wasn’t clear to me, but he insisted and made me see that it was possible. He showed me that I was capable of playing more aggressively and of being able to deal with players who hit very flat and on fast courts. I realized that it was capable and there I told myself that I should implement it in matches. I didn’t see it as a waste of time in case it went wrong, I could always go back to my previous tennis.”
Greater tranquility in your life, very calm now
“I had a lot of sleepless nights during the pre-season because of the decision to change coaches. It turned out to be a good decision, I feel relieved and very proud of myself for being able to do this. It was very chaotic at the end of the last year in terms of choosing which tournaments to play next year. Now I have more experience and better tennis, I feel a great peace of mind.”
